Kyle Wellwood on becoming a Shark, that past problem with his weight, and his style of play

I’m advised today’s lineup tinkering is pretty much complete, but here at WTC there’s still one more voice to hear from: Kyle Wellwood.

Talk about your instant life changes. The Blues are playing the LA Kings tonight in St. Louis and Wellwood was on the ice for the morning skate with what he thought would be his new teammates. Then came the news he was actually going to be a Shark.

” I got called off the ice and that’s how I found out,” Wellwood said. “I was getting ready to play for them tonight, but we knew the waiver process was over at noon and it just happened to be the time of the morning skate.”

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Wellwood, of course, knew he might end up with a different team — particularly since St. Louis had just gone through the same process and lost Marek Svatos to Nashville.

Wellwood brings with him that reputation for being overweight and out of condition when he reported to the Vancouver Canucks at the start of the 2008-09 season. Yes, that was a problem then, he acknowledges. No, it’s not a problem now.

“When I came to Vancouver, I came off waivers from Toronto and I had three groin surgeries and I had a broken leg over the summer,” he said. “When I got to camp, I wasn’t in good enough shape or like the rest of the guys.

“That was something I fixed and now I’ve been in great shape,” Wellwood continued. “I’ve been under 180 pounds so it’s kind of a running joke — you still get the fat jokes when you’re one of the lightest people in hockey. You just laugh and shake your head.”

Like Eager, Wellwood is flying to San Jose later today and expects to be on the ice for Wednesday’s 11 a.m. practice and on the flight to Vancouver later in the day.

He said he’s not going back to Vancouver — the last NHL team he played for — with any kind of a chip on his shoulder.

“I think things ended well in Vancouver.,” he said. ” I have a lot of respect for the management there and my old teammates. It was just a wonderful experience there and I’m hoping it can be the same in San Jose. I can show my best game that I don’t think I’ve played yet in the NHL and I’ll be able to make a home in San Jose.”

That said, he does expect some reaction from the crowd at Rogers Arena.

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“It’s certainly exciting to go back to Vancouver and play them right away. The fans will get a good laugh out of that, I’m sure.”

Speaking of his best game, here’s how Wellwood describes his style of play — and what he needs to maybe do differently:

“The last couple years I focused on playing smart – winning faceoffs, playing smart defense, handling the puck in good situations. I wasn’t very dangerous offensively.

“What I’ve been working on is trying to get back to making more plays offensively, being more of a passer again. Just make sure I have energy on the ice, that I’m not just watching the play and letting it come to me.”

Other thoughts:

On leaving the KHL — “Just being over there can be a difficult experience at times and it was for me so I was happy to get home. Just having NHL teams looking for you to come in and help is nice and I’m going to be ready to play.

“Playing in the KHL was good hockey,” he added later, “but it’s not the same as the NHL. I’m looking forward to playing in San Jose and getting back to the top level of hockey.”

On his contract status, a two-way, $650,000 agreement he signed with St. Louis: ” I can’t dress for an AHL game this year, but it’s still a two-way, $30,000 in the minors pro-rated. I would have to go through waivers again before I’d go to the minors anyway.”

Wellwood says he hasn’t really stayed in touch with Jonathan Cheechoo over the years, though the two were linemates for one season in Belleville of the OHL.

“I would say hi to him, but I was only 16 at the time,” Wellwood said. “That was 11 years ago.”

*****Look for Wellwood to be wearing uniform No. 20 — and, no, I don’t think that’s for the same reason Evgeni Nabokov picked it — while Ben Eager has No. 55 on his back, the same number he wore with the Blackhawks. That was also Mike Moore’s number with the Sharks at times over the past two seasons, but he’s switching to No. 52 in the future.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

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